


If not always in the way we expect

by Sapphyre402



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Constructive Criticism Welcome, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts Inter-House Friendships, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Slytherin Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 07:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29995683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphyre402/pseuds/Sapphyre402
Summary: Draco's fifth year at Hogwarts was... a mess. He only wanted to get out from under Snakeface's thumb; somehow he got a boyfriend and a sort-of little sister out of it.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood & Draco Malfoy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 97





	If not always in the way we expect

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Houses Competition on ff.net. Exploring a possible friendship between Luna and Draco was interesting, but of course the drarry sneaked in.   
> Let me know what you think!

Luna Lovegood was a mess.

She wore too-big robes over non-reglementary dresses, different-coloured socks, radishes as earrings, Spectrespecs for Merlin knew what reason and he didn’t even want to guess what she did with all the butterbeer corks she collected. 

She was a mess, and Draco would claim, until he was blue in the face if necessary, that he had no idea how they had gotten to that point.

But of course he knew. 

It was all Potter’s fault.

Draco did something at the beginning of his fifth year. Something really out of character. Maybe he was possessed, he didn’t know, but on September 2nd, he went up to Potter and demanded a truce. 

But of course, he knew why. He had been afraid, so paralyzed with terror after his father had invited that monster in their home, that he had crawled to Potter like a beaten dog with his tail between his legs and begged for protection. And Scarhead had just… trusted him. Invited him into his friend group as if he hadn’t made their lives miserable for four years.

And it was all good and well that Saint Potter had accepted him, but the other Gryffindorks weren’t half as quick to bury the hatchet. Unless it was in his back, and only Potter’s regard protected him from that.

So he spent the first fortnight of the school year hanging out with Mudbloods and blood traitors, shunned by his House for abandoning them and at the outermost fringes of Potter’s group, thinking that if that were his life he should get used to it. Until a slip of a girl sat next to him and wouldn’t leave.

But, well, he could tolerate someone occupying the seat next to him if they could stay in their place. So he proceeded to ignore her quite happily until he felt pressure at his elbow.

He turned.

“Yes?” The little blonde girl didn’t seem at all impressed by the level of menace he managed to express in one word. She just stared at him with big, blue eyes, looking so innocent that butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

“Do you think there’ll be pudding?”

“We’re at breakfast.” He waited the right amount of time for her to come to her own conclusions based on his words, but she didn’t. She kept looking at him expectantly instead, a small hand still grabbing his sleeve, and his cold mask cracked a bit. “Maybe you can get sweet oats?” He cringed at his own questioning tone, and that was the moment Potter decided to stick his ugly mug in his business.

“Alright, Luna?”

Wait, Luna? Was he talking with Loony Lovegood?

The girl nodded frantically before stopping abruptly,

“Really well, Harry Potter, thank you. You?”

“I’m fine too, Luna.” Then the most infuriating Gryffindor of all had the courage to look at him and wink, of all things, “Don’t let Malfoy scare you off.”

“Oh, no, Draco and I will be the best of friends.”

“Excuse me?” The girl, Luna, patted him on the arm,

“You’re excused, don’t worry. You’ve made the right choice.”

How was that his life?

  
  


After two weeks, Draco felt like he should have come to terms with his new situation. Yet, he hesitated at the doors to the Great Hall; but waiting until he was picked up by Potter and his gang seemed ridiculous, so the Slytherin decided that he would march straight in that day, no hesitation.

Except his feet wouldn’t move.

Could he sit alone at the Gryffindors’ table? What if the few early-risers of the House didn’t want him around? He was fast with his wand, but not that fast.

Should he just go to Slytherin’s? But his Housemates were cunning, they would curse him subtly, not challenge him loudly in front of the teachers. What could he–

He startled as a small hand slipped into his, a girl’s high pitched voice chirping at his side.

“I hope there’s pudding!”

“Lovegood?”

“It’s Luna,” the witch smiled up at him, “C’mon! We arrived early, now we can get the best places!”

So Luna Lovegood dragged him into the Great Hall and made him sit smack-dab in the middle of the Gryffindor table.

When Potter and his sidekicks finally joined them, they were almost half-way through their breakfast, and no one had disturbed them as Draco had feared. The Golden group settled around the two non-lions as if it was an everyday occurrence, chatting away like they didn’t have a care in the world.

Draco didn’t know if he wanted to hex someone (Potter, it was always Potter), or thank Merlin. He ended up giving some of the most pudding-like food he found on the table to Luna, who smiled at him like he had made her day. 

It didn’t change things. Not really.

So maybe Lovegood wasn’t completely hopeless. Still, Ravenclaws were supposed to be tolerable because they were smart. Only Potter would go and recruit the strangest of the bunch. 

A few days later, as if thinking about her had summoned the witch, Draco was walking towards the Great Hall for lunch, when he found her only a few corridors away from his destination, humming under her breath with her head in the clouds.

Draco couldn’t leave her to her devices. He just couldn’t. 

Luna wasn’t even surprised when he approached, she just refocused her attention from an unspecified point on the ceiling to him and smiled. Before he could utter a word, she had taken him by the arm and had started skipping towards the Great Hall, trying to tug him along.

“C’mon, Draco! Harry’s waiting.”

“Where are your shoes, Lovegood? It’s September in Scotland!”

“Oh, the Nargles are at it again, but it’s fine, they have a way of returning.”

“Your shoes?!”

“All things, silly!” And Draco let his scoff turn into a matching laugh because he was fifteen and he wasn’t going to cry over a pair of shoes.

  
  
  


When he had to leave the Slytherin dormitories for fear of reprisals from a very specific faction of upper-year Slytherins, Professor Snape had had a private room made up, still in the dungeons, but closer to the Head of House office than to the Common Room. 

After the episode with the shoes, Draco invited Luna in.

“It’s good that our colouration is so similar, this shade of green is wonderful with your skin.”

Luna hummed, not caring overly much about the cloak he was holding up to her cheek.

But Draco had to give her something, something obvious, so everyone would know that she was under his protection.

He knew Potter had taken to glaring at whomever looked at her in a way he didn’t like. It was mostly effective, the bullying had almost disappeared, but Scarhead was still a little too nice. Draco didn’t have that problem. He knew exactly how to hit those who would hurt the ones he claimed as his, in a way that left scars that would twinge in warning from that moment on.

He fixed his cloak around Luna’s shoulders, resizing it with a quick spell. 

As he slipped his wand back in its holster, his eyes caught the shift of shadows and light that made her hair look even shinier, and his fingers moved to caress a strand before he could overthink it.

He sighed,

“Your hair is so pretty.”

Luna’s happy grin lit up her features and she reciprocated without hesitation.

“Thank you, your hair is pretty too.” 

Draco smiled back at her, knowing full well that a shade of blond so pale it looked like silver under the light wasn’t such a common trait that it randomly popped up in pureblood lines. He stroked her tresses once more. Had he been returning to Malfoy Manor during the holidays, he would have checked the family tree, as it was, he gave her a brooch to hold her new cloak closed and ushered her out of his rooms. 

  
  


Later, much later, when January turned to February, and Draco had become closer to a certain Gryffindor than he’d ever thought possible, Draco and Luna took advantage of what ended up being the first truly nice day of the season to have a small picnic on the grounds. 

No one was around. The sun had already started to get colder, and most of the snacks they had brought had been eaten, when Luna convinced him to try and braid her hair, of all things. 

Draco, because hanging out with Gryffindors had made him a pushover, had kneeled up behind the girl, and was trying to work out a rhythm.

As the Slytherin (in name only, lately) twisted a strand of thin, pale hair, Luna stopped humming, distracted by something. She shifted in a way that forced Draco to bend over her quickly to keep from pulling her hair and the boy had to keep from swearing. Already making French braids wasn’t an ability he could boast any sort of skill in, having a model like Luna, who flittered up and down with no rhyme or reason, made it all the more challenging. 

When he was sure he wasn’t at risk of messing up all his hard work, he looked up to check if he could find what distracted Luna.

And of course it was Potter walking towards them, his dumb smile firmly in place.

Draco refused to give him more attention than necessary and concentrated back on his task, but when he looked up from Luna’s hair to get a flower from the small bunch in front of the girl, he couldn’t help but notice the Boy Who Lived. 

Potter had come to a stop on their small picnic blanket and was looking down at them with those ridiculous eyes of his. Draco just had to blurt it out, like a Weasley.

“What?”

“You look good together.”

“You-” But Potter completely ignored the beginning of his rant, leaning down. In short order, he kissed Luna on the forehead, pecked him on the lips and sauntered off like he didn’t have a care in the world, waving over his shoulder.

“Be good, kids!”

“I’m older than you are, Potter!”

But Luna only waved back, hummed a few notes and kept working on her flower crown, unfazed as usual. Draco, on the other hand, had to take a few long breaths and calm down if he didn’t want to strangle the flowers he was supposed to braid into her hair, pretending they were Potter’s neck.

When he finally finished the long braid, he was perceptibly calmer. He tied it off with a spell and sighed, welcoming the way Luna leaned back into him, turning so she could blink her big, blue eyes at him.

“You’re like the big brother I never had.” Draco could feel himself almost flush,

“Luna…” But she blithely went on,

“It’s good that you and Harry are going to get married and have my little godchildren, because I consider him a brother too.” Draco’s pink blush turned an angry red.

“Luna!”

The girl only pecked him on his warm cheek and grabbed his arm, jumping to her feet and pulling him along with her.

Draco could only shake his head and follow her, rolling up their blanket and collecting their basket with a nifty little spell. He tugged his arm out of Luna’s hold and intertwined their fingers instead, muttering “Silly little moon,” as he did so.

She beamed so hard at him, he thought she might have gotten off a Lumos while he wasn’t looking.

  
  


Many other things happened during his fifth year at Hogwarts, but that was how he ended up pseudo-adopting Luna Lovegood. 

Considering his unstable family situation, it wasn’t logical. Maybe not even smart.

When he reflected on it, he convinced himself that he could hide behind the excuse that she probably was related to the Malfoys somehow… But the truth was that even if she wasn’t, he had claimed her. That was enough to make her family in his eyes.


End file.
